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Not so Enchanted with the Enchantment of the Seas

Sail Date:
April 2012

Destination:
Eastern Caribbean

Embarkation:
Baltimore

We just completed a 7 night cruise on the RC Enchantment of the Seas, with our twin 11-year old boys. Let me preface my comments by saying, this was our 5th cruise, 3 on Carnival and now 2 on Royal Caribbean.

We were looking forward to the ease of boarding in Baltimore as that is just over an hour's drive away from our home. Parking was shipside, and we were on the ship inside an hour of arriving at the port. Once we got to our Junior Suite, we were somewhat discouraged to see that the ship was pretty "tired". The cabinetry is quite old looking, and is in need of updating desperately. We did however have a flat screen TV, and a nice sized balcony.

Our first, second, 12th meal and so on in the Windjammer, was bittersweet. The view is excellent, the food is not. The food on the entire cruise was quite disappointing. The best way to put it is just plain mediocre. In the Windjammer, we would joke about the "dried meat of the day" special. How can sliced roast More
beef taste like sandpaper?!

The formal restaurant My Fair Lady had somewhat better food, not by far however, and the portions were very small. These discoveries were very disappointing when you so look forward to the food on a cruise.

The entertainment on the ship was hit or miss, mostly miss. The singing and dancing shows were billed as "Broadway quality". Someone at RC needs to go back to Broadway. They were high school caliber at best. There was a hilarious comedy team called, John and Johnny B., they were terrific. The next night was a comedian named Dean Austin, that was painful to watch him self-destruct on stage. We were embarassed for him, it was beyond bad.

The husband and wife team cruise directors tried very had to make things work with what they had. At times they seemed a little cheeky, but it must be hard to stay fresh week in and week out on these ships.

Kids Club- Being that it was spring break week, we had over 900 kids on our ship of 2700 passengers. Our boys wanted to check out Kids Club, and it was packed! After an hour, and one kid throwing up in front of everyone, it was time to get them out. Having contracted the Noro Virus on our last cruise and confined to our cabin for 5 days, we were not taking any chances. They never went back to the club.

Overall, I would rate this cruise 2 out of 5 stars. It is a small ship, the ports are okay, with the exception of Port Canaveral. There is a reason why that is an embarkation port, and should not be a destination port. Not much to do there. Nassau was nice, especially Atlantis. CocoKay was jam packed, as there was another ship there when we were there. At 9 am, they were already out of umbrellas for over 5000 people. I counted 30 on the beach, seriously?!!

For a first time cruiser, this might be a good option, but for anyone that has cruised on another line, or is looking for more space to spread out, I would suggest going with something over the 100 gross ton category.

In the meantime, the Enchantment needs to get a total facelift, and upgrade the food quality in a big way to be a serious cruise contender. Less